2.05.2013

How To Fake a Double Exposure

I really love the look of double exposures, especially when the photo combines a portrait and nature. I've been wanting to create some of my own double exposure photographs but have had trouble finding a good tutorial. Some cameras can do it in camera. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those cameras. So I just started playing around in Photoshop until I figured it out. So here's how I did it.

What I used:

Photoshop Elements 10

1 portrait

1 nature photo

1: First, open up both of your pictures in Photoshop. Put the portrait layer on top of the nature photo layer in the layers tab, as shown.

2: Change the layer style of the top, portrait layer to "Screen" or "Lighten". Try them both, one might look better than the other for certain pictures.

3: Resize and position the layers to get them where you want them. Crop to your desired size.

4. Play with the opacity of each layer until you achieve your desired look.

5: Have fun with it! Try different effects. Making the portrait layer black and white makes for some dramatic results.

Pretty dang simple, right? This technique works best when the portrait is on a light/white background or with a backlit subject where the background is blown out. I had a limited amount of photos to use that worked, but I still was able to make a lot of cool combinations. You could also play around with layer masks to really control where you want each layer to come through. Or try a triple exposure!